We have studied the effect of deposition conditions and strain on the phase stability, grain structure, grain orientation, crystallinity, and magnetism of InFeCoO4 spinel thin films grown on single-crystal (0 0 1) SrTiO3 (STO) and (0 0 1) MgO substrates. The growth window for good-quality films exhibiting uniform orientation was observed to be very narrow with deviations from optimal conditions resulting in highly disordered growth characterized by mixed (0 0 1) and (1 1 1) type orientations, expanded out-of-plane lattice constants, and reduced symmetry for the (0 0 1) oriented grains. Bulk-like magnetic properties could be obtained in films grown on STO under optimal conditions, whereas significantly lower values for saturation magnetization and T-C were observed for the disordered samples. The absence of frequency-dependent components in AC-magnetization measurements indicates the absence of a glassy state previously observed in bulk InFeCoO4. The significantly smaller grain size of the samples grown on MgO at optimal conditions resulted in depressed T-C in addition to a strong superparamagnetic effect below 20 K. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.